Glycol vs Tap Water in Chest Freezer for Fermentation Temp Control

[bpaulik]

I just recently started with controlling the fermentation temperature of my 1/2-barrel SS BrewTech fermenter. I am currently using a bucket of tap water inside a small chest freezer. The problem I'm having is the freezer gets extremely musty smelling from the bucket of water. If I switch to a mixture of glycol and distilled water, will this problem go away?

Once the fermentation is complete, I was thinking I would put the glycol mixture back into gallon jugs for storage until needed for the next batch. Would this be ok or, will the glycol mixture go bad or only last so long?

 

[Jag75]

Probably still be musty since it's water, but I can't say for sure. Sounds like you need a glycol chiller for that nice rig you have .

 

[RM-MN]

Why do you want to control the fermentation temperature of water? It's the beer temp you should be concerned with and that will not be the same temp as a bucket of water in the chamber. Tape your sensor to the outside of the fermenter with a piece of insulating material over top of it or use a thermowell for the sensor.

 

[SanPancho]

I just recently started with controlling the fermentation temperature of my 1/2-barrel SS BrewTech fermenter. I am currently using a bucket of tap water inside a small chest freezer. The problem I'm having is the freezer gets extremely musty smelling from the bucket of water. If I switch to a mixture of glycol and distilled water, will this problem go away?

Once the fermentation is complete, I was thinking I would put the glycol mixture back into gallon jugs for storage until needed for the next batch. Would this be ok or, will the glycol mixture go bad or only last so long?

musty smell is probably just from humidity. seal the reservoir if you can. glycol is a perpetual fluid, doesnt disappear, you have to spill it to lose it. water on the other hand will evaporate, and if you arent careful it can leave you with a higher % of glycol than you want, increasing the strain on the chiller unit. (not applicable in your case) it doesnt transfer heat like water does, decreasing the efficiency of your cooling setup.

long story short, put a lid on it. will keep the musty smell down, and avoid your water evaporating off.

 

[bpaulik]

Why do you want to control the fermentation temperature of water? It's the beer temp you should be concerned with and that will not be the same temp as a bucket of water in the chamber. Tape your sensor to the outside of the fermenter with a piece of insulating material over top of it or use a thermowell for the sensor.

I'm not controlling the fermentation temp of water. I have a bucket of water in the chest freezer which is then pumped through the FTSS coils inside the fermenter to control the temp of the wort being fermented.

 

[bpaulik]

musty smell is probably just from humidity. seal the reservoir if you can. glycol is a perpetual fluid, doesnt disappear, you have to spill it to lose it. water on the other hand will evaporate, and if you arent careful it can leave you with a higher % of glycol than you want, increasing the strain on the chiller unit. (not applicable in your case) it doesnt transfer heat like water does, decreasing the efficiency of your cooling setup.

long story short, put a lid on it. will keep the musty smell down, and avoid your water evaporating off.

This is such a simple fix and I never even thought about it. I will give this a try. The bucket I'm using has lids that I can drill a hole into for the tubes.

 

[bpaulik]

Thanks @SanPancho, Adding the lid seems to have taken care of the problem. So far it seems so much better.

 

[SanPancho]

Thanks @SanPancho, Adding the lid seems to have taken care of the problem. So far it seems so much better.

coolio.

one other word of advice, if you're running a single fermenter, your glycol only needs to be 10-12F colder than your desired ferment temp. if you leave it set in the 30s like alot of people do you'll be wasting energy, running the chiller harder than necessary and shortening its life, and potentially having problems with overcooling the wort.

if you run more than one fermenter at a time, then you set it to 10-12F lower than the coldest ferm. in either case, the only time it needs to be set down in the 20s or 30s is when you start crashing something. i guess technically doing a very cold lager ferment below 50 would also count. but the point is that its wasteful and careless on the equipment to run it full bore all the time. not necessary at all.